Saw a new F150 that had been converted to natural gas/gasoline. It had a 25 gallon tank mounted in the bed of the truck and was covered by a rubber mat. The truck gets 16 mpg in either mode but the natural gas is $1.00 per gallon if you can find it. Some of the truck stops have natural gas for the large trucks but the connectors will not fit the ones in the p/u. The truck was purchased in Oklahoma. They will give you a rebate of $9000 to cover the cost of the conversion. The driver said that one other state gives the rebate but he couldn't remember which one. I like the idea of the conversion but it might be awhile before it is practical on a large scale.

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Common sense and deodorant are a lot alike. People who need it the most don't use it.

Back in the 80s a buddy of mine had a van that ran on propane. It ran fine and had decent power.. and was cheap. I didn't like the fact that he had taken out the seats for space and i had to sit on the tank which was mounted to the floor. I think he had it mounted inside because it was pretty big... I'm guess maybe 100 gallons. Probably so he could go long distances with propane stations being so infrequent.Yeah.. I'm looking at my 90 gallon fish tank and that looks to be about the same size as the tank in his van.Back to the power issue... he lived on top of a 1 mile high mountain and it got up there every day with no issues.

Pirate
Old And In The Way
Registered: 02/21/07
Posts: 3180
Loc: Missouri

There is one natural gas compressed gas station with in a 200 miles radius of me, Springfield MO, according to a recent story on TV the station was built for 1.4 million for the city government but the city allows citizens to purchase the compressed LP gas at 1.10 a gallon

I got a chance to talk to the p/u owner again and asked him about the power. He said the natural gas was fine for the hauling of regular sized loads but he had to switch to regular gas when he hauled a trailer with several thousand pounds of weight in it from Joplin, Mo. to Hannibal, Mo. There are lots of steep hills on that particular stretch of highway.

There was a p/u equipped with a propane tank that went through one of those small car washes with a brush that washed the truck. The brush knocked the valve of the tank and the explosion leveled the car wash and damaged a lot of homes in the area. That was in the 80's when propane conversions were popular.

One of the reasons the pumping stations for natural gas are so expensive is the cost of the equipment to compress the gas. The pressure has to be a lot higher than the 6 psi required for natural gas in the home.

It loks like it will be awhile before the conversion will be practical for most people.

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Common sense and deodorant are a lot alike. People who need it the most don't use it.

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